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Today is Twitter is 6 years old. It is no longer the fresh new internet baby, instead Twitter can be jealous of Pinterest, the new internet baby darling. Some interesting facts about Twitter:

Twitter reached 500k users 1 year and a half after launching

Twitter reached 1 billion tweets shortly after 3 years.

Today Twitter easily has more than 250 million tweets per day.

What I also find fascinating about Twitter, and internet technology in general is just how quickly new technologies change the way we communicate, find interesting and relevant information, and market our businesses. Even more interesting to me is how women use Twitter, and why many people say more women are using Twitter than men. Check out this excerpt from a fascinating Twitter infographic:

I love that women represent such a large majority of Twitter users. I do wish though that we were using it more for business and research, and not only to keep up with friends. One way or another, tough, Twitter has found it's way into our lives, and whether you use Twitter regularly, or have ever tweeted before, clearly this is a medium that is growing and changing the way humans all over the world communicate. All of us heard a year ago how Twitter played a central role in the Arab Spring uprisings. The fact that Twitter provided a place for people to voice their dissent, organize, and get the word out to the rest of the world of what was really going on in Egypt and Tunisia. How cool to know that a company built for profit, in one of the biggest capitalist countries in the world, aided a movement for freedom and democracy to people so far away ?

From my perspective as a working mother and head of a technology company I use Twitter for all kind of reasons. I use it:

To market my company with tweets from @liveplan and @bplans . Our customers and users reach out to us via twitter, and we reach out to them. We collect feedback, help solve problems, and post relevant information.

To connect with other #workingmom 's and other moms that have #mommyguilt like I do. I find it extremely comforting to know other #workingmom s have many of my same challenges. I reach out to moms and ask questions, support #workingmom 's that tweet about problems they have, and find interesting content that relates to me

To get ideas for my blogs. I find knowing what is trending, and what people are tweeting about, helps me understand what I should write about. It gives me ideas, and helps me research them.

I love my interactions with people on twitter and love finding more cool women leading the way in technology, entrepreneurship, small business, and parenting. Something about the way people tweet and the fact that you have to keep everything short and sweet provides a supportive and comforting environment. Clearly the shot tweets also lend themselves to #flames and #peoplemisbehaving. But having to keep your tweets to 140 characters really forces people to think carefully bout what they write, and how they write it. I love that about Twitter. And maybe the fact that more women use Twitter to keep in touch with friends more than any other reason is not so bad. If you watch Downton Abbey you may have noticed that the only reason the Downton Abbey family decides to install phones in the house is because the sisters were exposed to telephones during their "season" in London, and now can't live without it. It's not the male head of household who wants the telephone. This is very similar to why more women use Twitter than men-- they want to be connected, reach out to friends, and be in the know.

So as Twitter celebrates it's 6th birthday, no longer in it's infancy, I am curious. How do you use Twitter? Why do you use Twitter?